The Lightning did not take it easy on the other team from Florida in the first full game since Vincent Trocheck‘s jarring ankle injury. They hung seven goals on the Panthers, and Stamkos was leading the charge with a goal and three assists for four points.

After a relatively quiet start to 2018-19, Stamkos is heating up, even if there are still some scoreless nights here and there. Wednesday’s surge represents Stamkos’ fifth multi-point game since he generated three on Oct. 30.

Tampa Bay can win in a lot of different ways, and they might need more offense here and there as Andrei Vasilevskiy heals up. A keyed-in Stamkos could make a big difference in that regard.

After anxiously awaiting a return from an upper-body injury, Crosby wasted little time in making an impact for the struggling Penguins.

Number 87 generated a goal and two assists as Pittsburgh handled the Stars on Wednesday. Crosby extended his point streak to four games (three goals, five assists for eight points) with one of his better performances of 2018-19.

Will the Penguins right the ship? Outputs like these sure provide optimism.

The 22-year-old Rangers goalie earned the first shutout of his NHL career, making 29 stops. He’s now won four of his last five games.

There are a lot of things to point to when you explain how the surprisingly strong Rangers are winning games, but noting that they’re currently able to stay in games even when Henrik Lundqvist is getting a breather is a good place to start.

The Rangers are on a dizzying 9-1-1 tear in their last 11 games, including an active three-game winning streak. How much longer will this go before we should forget any notion of a rebuild?

Factoids

This is bad … but at least the Senators are scoring enough goals to make their stumbles more palatable to watch than some expected.

The #Senators have had plenty of struggles on defence, but their efforts on the road have been worst of all as they rank among these poor defensive squads from much higher-scoring eras pic.twitter.com/9WZqQVk0vb

Pekka Rinne‘s been awesome so far this season, and he’s also enjoyed an outstanding career. Need more to cement that? He broke his tie with Miikka Kiprusoff for the all-time record for Finnish goalie wins:

Pekka Rinne now holds the record for most wins by a Finnish-born goaltender. 🇫🇮

Buffalo roared to a 4-0 first period, ending Alex Lyon‘s first 2018-19 appearance for the Philadelphia Flyers early. Philly made a game of it, but the Sabres ultimately prevailed by a score of 5-2, giving Buffalo an impressive seven straight wins.

If you needed a reminder, consider that the NBCSN telecast noted that this is Buffalo’s first seven-game winning streak since October 2006.

This was Buffalo’s first sellout since opening night, and a national audience witnessed an affirming win for the Sabres.

Jeff Skinner began the scoring early, giving Buffalo a 1-0 lead just 3:38 in. Tage Thompson and Evan Rodrigues followed with goals of their own, putting the Sabres up 3-0 less than nine minutes into the game.

There were stretches during that opening frame where it felt like things might get even uglier for Alex Lyon, who appeared overmatched for a Flyers team that just isn’t enjoying any luck in net this season.

Johan Larsson showed nice touch on the 4-0 goal, but it’s also the sort that Lyon can’t yield, particularly with the Flyers already reeling:

Credit the Flyers for coming back with two goals in the second period, rather than rolling over altogether. Sure, it’s plausible that the Sabres might have relented a bit with such a lead, but Philly at least made a game of it. Jack Eichel‘s hustle helped set up Sam Reinhart‘s 5-2 empty-netter to wrap up the scoring.

Wednesday’s loss felt like a lot of the same for a Flyers team that’s been frustratingly middling, right down to the seemingly perennial headaches about goaltending.

There was one thing that was different, though: the not-quite-bullies got into their first fight of 2018-19, as Scott Laughton dropped the gloves with Larsson following his 4-0 goal.

Did that scrap spark that mini-rally for the Flyers? Believe that if you want to, but it wasn’t enough for Philly to end the Sabres’ impressive run.

November has been a ruthlessly brutal month for the Pittsburgh Penguins, but for one night, all felt mostly well.

Of course, the most important element was that the Penguins got a win. By edging the Dallas Stars 5-1 on Wednesday, the Penguins ended a four-game losing streak, and earned just their second win in 11 games (2-7-2).

It was about more than merely winning on Wednesday.

Sidney Crosby suiting back up was almost guaranteed to be a comfort for Pittsburgh, like Thanksgiving’s looming belly full of tryptophan. The extra gravy came in Crosby playing so well, though.

His first goal back in the lineup was quite impressive, while he finished the game with three points.

Crosby also did some great work to set the table for what was eventually a Patric Hornqvist goal:

Instead, those stars haven’t been able to hoist up an increasingly soggy low-end of talent, as the likes of Matt Cullen, Riley Sheahan, and others simply haven’t been good enough.

With that in mind, it’s a promising sign that Tanner Pearson is showing early signs of being another stroke of buy-low trade brilliance for Penguins GM Jim Rutherford. After failing to score a point in his first two games with the Penguins, Pearson scored a goal to give him points in consecutive games (two goals, one assist overall). That’s a hot streak relative to what had been a shockingly abysmal season with the Kings (zero goals, one assist in 17 games).

The Penguins coughed up a 4-1 lead to fall to the Buffalo Sabres in their last game, yet they at least eked out an overtime point there, so they’ve generated some standings points after free-falling for much of the past month. Considering their struggles so far, they’ll take it.

Still, Pittsburgh has a long way to go, and you could probably argue the same for the Dallas Stars. Dallas only mustered 19 shots on goal against a Penguins defense that leaves a lot to be desired, and only managed 17 SOG as they lost to the Rangers on Monday.

NBC’s coverage of the 2018-19 NHL season continues with Wednesday night’s matchup between the Philadelphia Flyers at the Buffalo Sabres at 7:30 p.m. ET. You can watch the game online and on the NBC Sports App by clicking here.